Mexican Hot Chocolate

Hi again! 

This past December, my family made a trip to Mexico. We were in a nice hotel in Playa del Carmen and it was a super good, fun, lazy, indulgent time :) . 

We did lots of touristy stuff, which was fascinating and informative. We learned lots about Mayan culture as well. And we ate lots of food!

One of the neat little places me and my brother went to was this coffee shop called Ah Cacao. It's a Mexican chain that seems to mainly have branches in the Riviera Maya. We each got a Mayan hot chocolate and I bought these chocolate discs to make my own hot chocolate at home. 

Here's how it went down:

Here's what one of the discs looks like. It's neat that you can separate it into little chunks! You need two or three pieces for one cup of hot chocolate. 

I went conservative and only used two pieces. 

Then you need some milk, naturally. You're supposed to heat the milk to the point that it's bubbly and frothy, but not quite a boil. 

Drop in the chocolate pieces and mix them around so they melt. I whisked a lot! I believe the instructions said to make it frothy. 

When it's done, put it in a mug and enjoy!

It was very nice. Not too sweet and not too heavy either. I liked it :) pretty simple stuff, and I just like that it's legit Mexican :)

Thanks for reading!

Yuna

My first attempt at French press coffee

Hello!

I've got a lot of posting to catch up on, but let me first show you my first attempt at making French press coffee. It was ... Ok. Admittedly, it turned out to be a bit watery, but it got the job done! I'll add more coffee grounds next time. 

I don't actually like coffee all that much, so I made a cafe au lait, or something like it. 

Here's the coffee I bought from Weaver Street Market. The internet said I should get a course grind, so that's what I did. It's a medium roast because I can't handle dark coffee...

Here's the coffee grounds in the French press. I should put more in next time. Rookie mistake. 

Here's some boiled water in the French press. So far so good. 

View from the top. Kinda... Unappealing... 

I heated up some soy milk to make a cafe au lait. So much cheaper than buying one at the coffee shop! But perhaps not as good... At least not yet :)

There were little coffee grounds floating around. 

The internet (and the instructions on the French press) said to stir the coffee grounds. So I did. 

Then I pressed! It was at this point that I realized that the coffee was too watery. But... On well. It was just for me anyways. :)

Here's my cafe au lait with chocolate croissant! It was a nice Sunday morning treat :)

Hopefully next time the coffee will turn out better (in time for my friends to visit me in NC!)

Bye bye!

Yuna

Update: my brother informed me I need to use three scoops of coffee grounds per one regular mug of coffee. I did that today, and my coffee looks much more coffee-like. Hooray! 

American M&M's

Hi :)
I know, two posts in one day. Crazy!!!

One of the things that fascinates me the most in the land of America is the variety -- selection like you've never imaged (if you live outside of America)!  I'm blown away at how many different types of the same thing are available.  I'm also equally blown away by the number of different brands that line the grocery store shelves and Targets (I don't know about Wal-mart cuz I don't go there often).  Of course, there are some essential Canadian items missing from American (or perhaps it's just North Carolinian) shelves, but that's okay, you can't have 'em all.  To do so would probably require us to merge both of our countries into one massive blob called Canamericada.  The flag would have 63 red maple leaves instead of stars, and somehow stripes would be incorporated in there.

Anyways, I digress...

At one of my more recent trips to Target with Ross (it's a tradition - we go every time he visits), I noticed how many different types of M&M's there are.  There are millions!!!  Zillions!  So many different types!  For instance, there's:

Pretzel M&M's! (These ones remind me of Ross because the orange M&M guy is getting an X-ray)

The classic Peanut M&Ms!

M&M's touchdown mix! (?? Guess I should've bought them to figure out what it was comprised of)

Peanut Butter M&M's!

Dark Chocolate M&M's!

Coconut M&M's!

Almond M&M's?!

Mint M&M's!

Raspberry M&M's!

M&M minis!

Phew! So many different types!  If I had more money, and maybe if they came in smaller packages, I'd try them all.  Oooorrrrr (light bulb), I could buy all of them and have you all over for an M&M's buffet party.  I'm a genius.

Thanks for reading!!!

Love,

Yuna

Korean restaurants we've been to recently

Hi again!

This will be a relatively short post, mainly with pictures of Korean food.  Being in Toronto is pretty awesome - I think I've bragged about this before.  There are so many different cultures mingling together, which translates into really good food from many, many different countries!!  I'll admit, I have never been to Korea (yet)... I know... Sad.  Super sad.  But I am told by my Korean parents, aunts, uncles, and friends that the restaurants we go to in Toronto are pretty darn good.  Ergo, please come visit. :)  So, without further ado, here are some pictures of Korean food!  Yaaaaaaayyyyy!

Ban-chan (side dishes) - These ones were extra fancy.

Dol-sot bibim-bap

Bulgogi something something with rice

Kalbi

Seolleongtang (Beef Bone Soup)

Okay, bye!!!!

Yuna

Japanese Food at a Korean Restaurant

Hellooooooo!

It's been too long.  I've been away because I became obsessed with taking pictures of my dog and inspirational quotes and so this tumblr was born.  Please check it out and enjoy :)

This post goes out to Tonya W, as she requested a food blog update.  I just appreciate having a fan at our little site.

So I've been visiting home for a little while now and we've gone out to eat a lot.  Like, A LOT.

One particular evening a few days ago, my dad and I got some late night sushi at a restaurant in Korea town.  I forget the name of this place... but it is close to a Tim Horton's.

I got a small sushi dinner:

Sideways sushi picture!

And my dad got Hwae-dup bap, which is a rice dish with lettuce, sashimi pieces, spicy sauce (gojuchang) and other good stuff.  

Hwae-dup bap.

That's my dad.  Do we look alike?

And then we ate and were satisfied.  I highly recommend this Korean-Japanese place by the Tim Horton's in North York.  I hope you enjoy it too!

Love,

Yuna

Have I told you about Bull City Burger?

Hiiiii!

There's a chance I may or may not have mentioned Bull City Burger on this blog before, which can or cannot be confirmed by looking or not looking at previous blog posts.  In any case, some friends and I went there recently and it was salubrious, as per usual.  (I just learned the definition of  "salubrious" two days ago.)  I should clarify that it was salubrious in the sense that it enhanced one's overall sense of well-being and purpose in life; I'm not sure how "health giving" it actually is with respect to that whole physical health/fat content thing.

Big-ups to Evan "The Beast" Johnson for having consumed 12 Krispy Kreme donuts earlier that day whilst running 5 miles, then eating a bacon cheeseburger.

Ok so here's the deal.  Get yourself to downtown Durham, NC and do yourself a favour and take your business to Bull City Burger.  Tell them I sent you - they will have no idea who you're talking about and you'll receive no perks whatsoever.

Here are some pictures! :D

Here's the sign that tells you that you're at the right place. 

Some of the interior decor. 

Pickle chips.  Freakin' fantastic.

My burger and skinny fries (duck frites).

I hope you enjoy your time at Bull City Burger as much as I did!

Peace, love, and hamburgers :)

Yuna

I made this from scratch!

...sorta.  I sort of made this from scratch.

But first off - Hello! :)

Where to begin... I have so much to say, which is dangerous because usually I like to talk a lot.  Okay, so today I was hungry (frequent occurrence), and I had some arugula that I knew I was gonna eat... but I knew I couldn't just eat arugula.  I'd still be hungry afterwards!  I also had a tomato and a can of chickpeas.  So by now, the gears are turning in my head, and I'm reminded of this very simple and delicious recipe.  (By the by, that Budget Bytes blog is pretty sweet - I find quite a few quick, cheap, and easy recipes there.)  The original recipe calls for tomato sauce, but I told myself, "Tomato sauce comes from tomatoes.  And you have a big huge tomato!  Why don't you use that instead?"  To which I replied, "What a great idea!"  True story.

I also am starting to realise I really like curry powder and if I can use it somehow, I will.  The original recipe is actually a quick curry with very simple ingredients, so I figured I could throw something together with this template.

So here's my recipe "from scratch."

What you need:
- a smidge (1 tbsp?) of olive oil
- 1 can of chickpeas
- 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, I'm not picky; this should be minced
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 very large tomato (or y'know, 2 or 3 smaller ones.  Whatever suits your fancy!)
- approx 1 tbsp of curry powder
- a dash of parika, cuz why not??
- salt and pepper to taste
- a splash of orange juice (Chef Michael Smith who hails from PEI says curry and orange naturally go together.  Of course!...yeah... I knew that...)
- basmati rice (I made about a cup's worth of raw rice)

Step One: Heat olive oil in a medium sized pot over medium-low heat.  Chop/mince onion/garlic and put into a pot.  Try not to burn the garlic like I did.

Step Two: Dice up tomatoes in to smallish pieces and toss 'em in the pot.  Let things simmer in there low and slow (there it is again).  At this point I added a bit of parika and a third of the curry powder.   And salt and pepper.

Tomatoes, onion, garlic, and spices all together in the pot.

I didn't mention this in the ingredients, but I wanted salad, so I made arugula salad with lemon juice and olive oil as the dressing (and salt and pepper).  Mmmmm bitter...

Step Three: Okie dokie, then you toss in the chickpeas.  Then i added the rest of the curry powder and the splash of orange juice.  Stir and let it keep on simmering.  I think in total, I probably let things simmer on low heat for about 30-40 minutes.  I'm sure you could keep it on the stove for as long or as little as you like though.  

CHICKPEAS!!!!!

Step Four: Cook rice.

Step Five: Put chickpea/tomato thing on rice. 

Step Six: Eat.

This photo represents the Step Six, the eating stage.  

Update: This tastes even better the next day as leftovers!  

So there it is.  My sort of some scratch tomato curry chickpea thing.  Should you choose to take the risk and follow my instructions, I hope it's decent, or at minimum edible.

Byeeeeee!

Yuna